Value chain · CLM-1200
In plain terms
A 2025 UK study says Virtus Solis counts the power its receiving site catches in a way the other designs do not: on their common method, a receiver that collects only the central spot of the beam can catch at most about 84 per cent of it.
The claim as recorded
A 2025 UK feasibility report comparing SBSP designs states that "the rectenna collection efficiency claimed by Virtus Solis would not be achievable under the calculation methodology used for other designs", explaining in a footnote that other designs assume a rectenna economically captures only the first maximum of the beam, which "places an upper bound on the efficiency of this stage at 84%"; it offers this as an example of large differences between parameter values that may reflect differences in how manufacturers calculate or define them.
Evidence behind this: T4, a feasibility report commissioned and overseen by the UK Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (PDF 2) (RAF036/2425, 2025) co-written by Frazer-Nash Consultancy, Space Solar Engineering Ltd and Imperial College London; Space Solar develops a competing SBSP design, which the report takes forward as its reference (PDF 13).
Scope and limits
A METHODOLOGY NOTE, NOT A MEASUREMENT, FROM A REPORT CO-WRITTEN BY A COMPETITOR. The report gives no derivation of the 84%. The figure it names, "rectenna collection efficiency", matches its own Table 1 row "Rectenna collection/reception efficiency" (PDF 12), where Virtus Solis P1 is 92% and the other five designs 64% to 77%, all under the 84% bound. SRC-013 PDF 9 has no row of that name: it gives Virtus a 100% free-space transmission efficiency and 92% RF-DC (CLM-1197), so which SRC-013 row the challenge lands on is the reader's mapping, not the report's. The 84% is a first-maximum bound under the other designs' assumption, not a limit on every possible rectenna. Space Solar, a co-author, develops a competing design.
What it assumes
No assumptions are recorded against this claim.
Where it comes from
PDF 13, body text: "Note that large differences between parameter values may indicate differences in how these parameters are calculated/defined across manufacturers. For instance, the rectenna collection efficiency claimed by Virtus Solis would not be achievable under the calculation methodology used for other designs." Footnote 8, same page: "In particular, other designs assume that a rectenna only economically captures the first maximum of a beam. This places an upper bound on the efficiency of this stage at 84%."
Basis: rectenna collection efficiency; upper bound in per cent for capture of the beam's first maximum
Related records
- Contradicts
- CLM-1197 The company beams at 10 GHz and claims its beam loses nothing in space on the way down, where...
Cite this
energyaperture.com/c/clm-1200
CLM-1200, Energy Aperture, as of 2025.
Connected records
Other published records linked to this one. A list, not a judgement.
- Also from SRC-076
- CLM-0018The most recent UK government report calls 230 watts per square metre a limit to be reached because it lowers cost, and cites an earlier...CLM-0019The report sets out Space Solar's plan: a small in-orbit test, then 31 megawatts in 2030, 150 megawatts in 2033, and 650 megawatts in...CLM-0152Two UK industry planning documents, from 2022 and 2025, each state a beam-intensity design figure in the 230-245 watts-per-square-metre...CLM-0213The study assumes that connecting a ground receiving site to the electricity grid costs about GBP 150,000 for every megawatt of power the...CLM-0214Six different solar-power-satellite designs each claim that turning the electricity collected on the ground into grid-ready power is 90 to...CLM-0215Any UK ground receiving station that wants to connect to the electricity grid must be able to supply or absorb a type of power called...CLM-0216The UK's fast-response grid support services need a generator to react within seconds, at any moment over a 4-hour period. A ground...CLM-0503Under the international radio rules as revised at the 2023 world radio conference, there is no radio-frequency allocation for beaming power...More on the source page.
- Contradicted by
- CLM-1197The company beams at 10 GHz and claims its beam loses nothing in space on the way down, where the other designs in its own table lose...